
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour
Spend more time inside with no-wait access to the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica through an official Vatican partner entrance. On this…
Intrigued by tripe & lampredotto? Then this is absolutely your tour. Designed to showcase Firenze’s iconic and hidden corners, I lead this tour as a Florentine food writer and world’s leading tripe expert. Along the way, you get a full immersion in tripe culture. We stop at two historic stalls — one to taste lampredotto, another to try a different tripe recipe — while talking about Firenze’s tripe trade. You don’t just taste tripe: you understand it. Your experience includes two tastings with drinks and a complimentary booklet of choice: “The Little Book of Lampredotto” (40 pages with history, photos, recipes) or “The Firenze of the Florentines” (48 pages on how Florentines think, behave, and see their own city). Together, the walk, the tasting, and the booklets offer a complete immersion into Firenze and its tripe culture, guided by an authority on the subject. (Is someone in your group a vegetarian? I’ll make sure they get an equally delicious substitution to the tripe tastings.)
We’ll start right at the Duomo. As we walk past it, we’ll chat about the color‑coded marble, the Florentine family whose name became an unflattering nickname, and Brunelleschi’s terracotta dome — a feat of engineering a few know it is connected to a delicious local dish. It’s a perfect place to begin your walk through the real Firenze of the Florentines.
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Palazzo Pazzi Quaratesi is next on our tour — one of the many buildings a non-Florentine could easily overlook. Built in the 15th century, the palace features distinctive architectural details that make it a classic Renaissance building. To a local, the building is noteworthy because it was home to the Pazzi family, the family who organized an assassination attempt on Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici in the Duomo on Easter Sunday, 1478. Giuliano was stabbed to death in the Duomo, but Lorenzo survived and became an even more powerful ruler. Every Florentine knows about the Pazzi family.
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The Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio
The Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio is the oldest functioning covered market in Firenze, and it is as popular with locals today as it was when it opened in 1873. This is a place where you hear the real Florentine accent and everybody seems to know each other. The market is not in the tourism business and makes no effort to impress anyone. Its purpose is to offer the freshest food to locals and traditional meals inside, and it is cherished by Florentines for both.
15 минутВход свободныйНа карте
30 минутВход свободный
Piazza Santa Croce is one of the few squares in the city center that unmistakably belongs to the Florentines. Beyond the church and the elegant buildings, it carries the energy of an active open square — a place where local kids learn to ride bikes or kick a ball around. Every June, the square is also home to the famous Calcio Storico, the centuries-old tournament in which the four quarters of the city compete against one another. For locals, these matches are identity, neighborhood pride, and a connection to the past. Piazza Santa Croce is a square that divides and unites Florentines, and it is a place that will forever feel like it is theirs.
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Via de’ Neri is a street where you can see the current evolution of the city. The schiacciata shops here have gone viral on social media, so we will likely see long lines of people waiting for these stuffed sandwiches. These are the new Florentine sandwiches, and they are quickly becoming part of the identity of modern Firenze. It is rare to see a Florentine walking down this street or eating at one of these spots — but not because the food isn't good. A Florentine will enjoy an old-style schiacciata with just one ingredient inside, not the new five or six, and they definitely would not stand in a long line for it. We will walk down this street because it perfectly shows how the old and the new coexist.
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Piazza della Signoria is the political center of the city, and therefore the home of multiple historic events. The square is filled with beauty, but at every turn, there is evidence of the power struggles between civilians and those who tried to dominate them — and between Firenze and those who tried to dominate it. The plaque marking where Savonarola was burned at the stake for his Bonfire of the Vanities is just one of the many details overlooked by tourists, but serves as a permanent reminder to Florentines of the power of the people.
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Проезд без остановкиВход свободный
Проезд без остановкиВход свободный
Next, we cross the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) the way locals do — quickly, weaving through the tourists and noticing the gold shops in our peripheral vision. From a distance, the Ponte Vecchio looks almost like a tiny village suspended over the river, with its wooden shutters and colorful shops. What matters here isn’t the jewelry — it’s the feeling of a place that has always been part of Firenze. First a wooden and stone bridge in Roman times, then home to tripe sellers, butchers and fishmongers, it eventually became the elegant bridge lined with jewelry shops that we see today. The bridge is the pride of the city Florentines offer it to tourists during the busy months and reclaim it for themselves in the off-season.
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Проезд без остановкиВход свободный
Looking at all the beautiful buildings in Firenze it is almost impossible for one to stand out, but the Palazzo Bianca Cappello does exactly that. We’ll admire this Renaissance building and look at its unique black-and-white façade. The exterior of the building is as dramatic as the scandalous love story that took place inside — there were lovers, a secret passageway, a murder, and the rise of a woman who would become Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
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Via de' Tornabuoni is undeniably the fashion runway of Firenze. It’s hard to imagine that the street was once a muddy riverbed and then the location for carpenters and lumber merchants before it changed during the Renaissance. During that time, the Tornabuoni, the Strozzi, and the Antinori families transformed the street into the residence for the elite, and since that time it has always been the street of the wealthy. Florentines like the street because it is closed to traffic — and who doesn’t enjoy passing display windows with shocking prices?
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The Palazzo Strozzi is a magnificent Renaissance palace: perfect symmetry, a grand courtyard, and completely constructed out of spite. In the 15th century, the Medici and the Strozzi battled for control over the city. The Medici won and exiled the Strozzi, but when the family returned, they constructed a building that was to be a statement to the Medici and beyond. We will look at the history of the building as well as how Florentines use it today. As for spite, it turns out to be a recurring theme in Firenze's history that we will discuss.
Проезд без остановкиВход свободный
30 минутВход свободный
Meeting point is in front of the octagonal baptistery, right under the Giotto belltower (on the right side of the cathedral when facing the church entrance)
На карте показан город Флоренция. Точное место встречи — адрес выше.Открыть карту крупнее
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